Wife of lawyer who sued over raid on home collapses at courthouse and dies

Criminal Justice

Wife of lawyer who sued over raid on home collapses at courthouse and dies

By Debra Cassens Weiss

Feb 3, 2014, 12:53 pm CST

A woman collapsed at a California courthouse and died on Friday, and her husband’s lawyer is blaming stress over his arrest and a raid on their home.

Stacey Feigel, 48, of Sanger, Calif., collapsed as she was going through the courthouse security line and was pronounced dead at the hospital, the Fresno Bee reports. The cause of death was apparently a “cardiac event,” according to Fresno County Coroner David Hadden.

Feigel was at the courthouse because her attorney husband, Sheldon Feigel, is accused of subornation of perjury, filing false court records and preparing false evidence in an alleged scheme to obtain title to abandoned homes through adverse possession.

She had appeared fit and healthy, but she was stressed by her husband’s arrest and what the Bee dubbed as a “commando-style” raid on their home, according to Fresno lawyer Mark Coleman, who has filed a $1 million claim over the raid on behalf of his client.

Coleman says investigators entered the Feigels’ home with guns drawn early on Jan. 15 and pointed the weapons at their children’s heads. Coleman says Sheldon Feigel has passed a lie detector test and looks forward to clearing his name.